The Salem Witches

Early in 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a number of girls fall ill, victims of hallucinations and seizures. In extremely religious Puritan New England, such frightening occurrences are attributed to the Devil and the sickness spurs fears of witchcraft. Before long the girls accuse other villagers of consorting with the Devil and casting spells. Old grudges and jealousies add to the atmosphere of hysteria and the Massachusetts judicial system, heavily influenced by religion, rolls into action. Within weeks dozens of people are in jail, and by the time the fever has run its course, nineteen people (and two dogs) have been hanged for witchcraft.

The Crucible

This powerful play, a study of intolerance, fear, and the abuse of unjust power, retells the story of Salem through the eyes of those at the centre of the maelstrom. It focuses on John Proctor, the essentially good but flawed farmer tormented in his struggle to work out right from wrong and act accordingly, but whose destiny propels the tale to its tragic conclusion. The play is studied widely as a modern American classic, compared by some to Shakespeare in its scale, but is far more accessible.

Arthur Miller and the context for The Crucible

Born in 1915, Arthur Miller produced his first great success, All My Sons, in 1947. Two years later he wrote Death of a Salesman, described as the first great American tragedy, and gained eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the United States.

Miller composed The Crucible in the early 1950s during the time of Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose vitriol proved the spark needed to propel the United States into a dramatic anti-Communist fervor during the first tense years of the Cold War. McCarthy led special congressional committees intended to root out Communists. Suspected Communists were encouraged to confess and name other sympathizers as means of escaping punishment. The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations and false confessions, creating the image that the United States was overrun with Communists and perpetuating the hysteria.

The liberal entertainment industry, in which Miller worked, was one of the chief targets of these “witch hunts”. Some who refused to incriminate their friends saw their careers suffer, and were blacklisted from jobs for years afterward. Miller took liberties with the facts of his own era, and also played fast and loose with the historical record. The general outline of events in The Crucible corresponds to what happened in Salem of 1692, but Miller's characters are often composites. His central plot device—the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor—has no grounding in fact (Proctor was over sixty at the time of the trials, while Abigail was only eleven).

A flyer for this production giving full booking details can be downloaded from the link http://rdg.org/flyers/crucible.pdf